William Horatio Bates

Name: Better Eyesight Magazine — February 1921
Author: William Horatio Bates

Better Eyesight Magazine — February 1921

Summary

“Better Eyesight Magazine — February 1921”, is a work by William Horatio Bates. It explores elements such as pain, strain and eyes.

Quotes from Better Eyesight Magazine — February 1921 (William Horatio Bates)

William Horatio Bates, Better Eyesight Magazine — February 1921

“ It was not the physical strain of looking at a point that produced the pain, because there was no physical strain, the eye being incapable of looking at a point. It was the mental effort of trying to do what was impossible.
As pain can be produced by the mind without any local cause, so it can be prevented or relieved by the mind, no matter how great the local irritation may be. In other words pain is a mental interpretation of certain stimuli, and under certain circumstances such stimuli are not interpreted as pain. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Horatio Bates, Better Eyesight Magazine — February 1921

“ Since then I have repeatedly demonstrated that pain can be produced by such a simple thing as imagining a letter or object imperfectly, or trying to look at a point for an appreciable length of time. I never knew these experiments to fail when patients could be induced to make them; but they are so uncomfortable that few are willing to do so. A physician under treatment for imperfect sight boasted that he had never had a headache or pain in his eyes in his life. I told him that I could easily show him how to produce such a pain, and that it would do him good to have one. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Horatio Bates, Better Eyesight Magazine — February 1921

“ Pain also occurs with no local cause whatever, being purely a creation of the mind, and it has, besides a very destructive effect upon the body, not infrequently causing death and more often handicapping the organism in its attempts to recover from the condition that caused it. Nature’s protective mechanism is, in fact, a two-edged sword striking both ways, and its control is one of the most serious problems that the medical profession has to deal with. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Horatio Bates, Better Eyesight Magazine — February 1921

“ Through relaxation the expression of eyes and face have become greatly changed.
I had been under treatment with Dr. Bates about three months when suddenly one day I noticed that my old and constant companion the backache was no longer with me, and it has never returned.
At the present time when I feel the strain coming into my eyes I rest them by palming and remembering or recalling different familiar objects-the colors of my frocks, recalled one at a time, or the forms and shapes of pieces of china which are in constant use in my home, or the color of the eyes of members of the family. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Horatio Bates, Better Eyesight Magazine — February 1921

“ There has been much discussion as to the nature of pain, and the mode by which it is produced, one school holding that there are special nerves for its transmission and another that it is merely the expression of a certain grade of irritation. Whatever may be said in favor of either of these points of view, it can be demonstrated that pain occurs only when the mind is under a strain and is immediately relieved when the strain is relieved. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Horatio Bates, Better Eyesight Magazine — February 1921

“ When the sun failed to shine, or was not convenient, I practiced looking at a large incandescent electric light, and very soon the artificial lights troubled me no more than the stars which twinkle in the heavens at night ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Horatio Bates, Better Eyesight Magazine — February 1921

“ It seems marvelous to be able to go about in the shops for a good part of the day and then keep my eyes open and enjoy to the fullest extent a performance or social affair in the evening. Also what a delight to ride through the country and feast my eyes with comfort upon the beauty of the passing landscape! ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Horatio Bates, Better Eyesight Magazine — February 1921

“ Persons with perfect sight never have any difficulty in preventing pain by the aid of the memory. Persons whose sight is not normal have more difficulty, because imperfect sight is the result of mental strain, and it is sometimes very difficult to relieve this strain. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Horatio Bates, Better Eyesight Magazine — February 1921

“ It is only when the mind is in an abnormal condition that pain can be felt, or even imagined, and irritations of the nerves are followed by pain only when such irritations produce mental strain. If the mind is not disturbed by them, there is no pain, and therefore, by learning to avoid this disturbance pain can be prevented, or relieved. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Horatio Bates, Better Eyesight Magazine — February 1921

“ As for the facial pain and contraction, they are practically cured. When the trouble returns, as it sometime does, I know how to relieve it.
I am very glad to have an opportunity to tell this story, and I wish I knew how to make it known to all who are suffering from the pain of defective eyesight, or of facial neuralgia, that these conditions can be cured by relaxation, and that the dreadful operations which are resorted to in the case of the neuralgia are unnecessary.
STORIES FROM THE CLINIC ~ 12: The Relief of Pain. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Horatio Bates, Better Eyesight Magazine — February 1921

“ At the age of two years she had become totally blind after a fever, and had remained so for a year and a half, during all of which time she suffered continual pain in her eyes. When her sight returned strong glasses were given to her, but they did not relieve her pain. Neither did the glasses given to her later by various physicians. Finally an optician, finding that the glasses he had given her did not help her, suggested that she should try Dr. Bates and our clinic.
At her first visit her pain was relieved by palming, and her vision improved from 5/70 to 5/40. ”

William Horatio Bates

Summary

Quotes from Better Eyesight Magazine — February 1921 (William Horatio Bates)

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